Marvel Comics has just published issue #24 in its ongoing Cable comic book title.  Cable is the mutant mercenary Nathan Summers, son of the X-Men's Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, who is born in the future and has been portrayed off and on in Marvel Comics since around 1990.  In his current title, he's the center of a multi-issue story arc in which he's time traveling along with his stepdaughter Hope to escape the X-Men universe adversary Bishop, who is trying to kill the girl in his belief that her death will stop a future disaster from happening to humanity.  While I haven't read it, apparently the stepdaughter Hope is a messiah-child from a previous X-Men title run.

     Issue #24 is entitled "Homecoming", and is divided into three sections which provide the reader with the final chapters eight through ten of this time-traveling action adventure tale.  And quite an action adventure it is, as from start to finish in this issue, Cable and Hope constantly time-hop between past and present, all the while battling Bishop in his attempt to kill Hope.  The time-travel technology is a bit off, which requires Cable to keep time jumping, in order to whittle away his near misses and finally land in our present timeperiod.  Without providing any spoiler details, Cable finally manages to reach our timeperiod and unleash a very creative strategic trap against Bishop, thereby saving his stepdaughter.  The final eight pages of the tale focus on Cable settling-into our present day and getting ready to head Hope into a normal life with X-Men academy teens of her own age.

     I enjoyed this comic book for a few reasons.  I had no previous experience in reading a story featuring Cable, but the quality of the effort, combined with an excellent first-page narrative as background, was such that I very quickly understood the concept of Cable's universe as well as the storyline to-date.  Writer Duane Swiercynski provides a very high quality script, mixing constant action with a very fresh and interesting time-travel tale.  It was very absorbing to watch the three main characters constantly time-hop between many different past and future timeperiods, as they work to get closer and closer to the present day.  Hats off to the concept of creating three distinct story chapters in one issue, each illustrated by a different team of very talented artists, who together present this multi-era time-hop in a visually effective style.

     Word on the comic book-reading street is that Marvel will end this title after the upcoming issue #25, apparently concluding this Cable story with a final issue involving the Deadpool characters.  So I'd recommend enjoying these interesting final issues of this science fiction-oriented take on this mutant time-traveling mercenary and his daughter.  Back issues of the current Cable title run are also readily available at That's Entertainment.

              
Marvel Comics has just published issue #1 of a two-issue mini-series entitled Breaking Into Comics The Marvel Way.  This very unique comic book series introduces and showcases a total of 14 new artists that Marvel is recruiting into their artistic bullpen.  The two comic books in the series are structured similar to the old Golden Age cavalcade of stars comics, filled with several short stories each starring a different superhero or team of heroes.

     Issue #1 presents six stories, starring in order Spider-Man, Cyclops with four additional X-Men, Iron Man, Daredevil's enemy Bullseye, The Runaways and the New Avengers.  Three stories stand-out in particular.  Newcomers Marc Guggenheim and Damion Hendricks open the issue with a beautifully-drawn Spider-Man tale, in which Spider-Man battles a giant robotic man, all the while ruminating in a humorous way how the "A-List" heros always get top billing when he actually does a lot of the drudge work against villains.  The Cyclops/X-Men story is drawn by Paul Davidson, who's artistic style is strongly reminiscent of Silver Age great Neal Adams.  The final story is a hilarious take on dating relationships starring the New Avengers Spider-Woman and Iron Fist. While the rookie art team's work is average, the story is elevated into high quality entertainment by a very sharp and funny script by veteran writer Brian Michael Bendis.

     I liked very much the fresh and (as far as I'm aware) brand-new idea of featuring a wide range of newly-hired artists in rookie debut efforts, all wrapped-up in one very affordable $3.99 comic book.  You get a lot of story variety for your money here, with six feature stories that showcase so many different artistic styles.  The writing is high quality also, with Marvel astutely pairing the artistic newbies with some quality established writers.  My one and only criticism is a dislike of the Iron Man tale; artist Joe Suitor has a very creepy artistic style, illustrating Tony Stark and the story's support characters as very small and emaciated people.  There's also a huge narrative flaw in the middle of the story, oddly dropping a child into the midst of the plot in a way that almost seems like a publishing error.

     But overall, a very enthusiastic thumbs-up for this eclectic and very high quality introduction to Marvel's latest crop of artistic bullpen rookies.  I'm sure that sooner or later, many of these very talented men and women will become very familiar names to comic book readers.

          
     IDW Publishing adds to its inventory of comic titles based on current and former television series with the recent debut of issue #1 of The A-Team.  For those of you too young to remember, The A-Team was a very popular 1980's t.v. show on NBC.  The A-Team consisted of a group of ex-U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers who served as adventurers under the leadership of John "Hannibal" Smith, played by veteran actor George Peppard.  The show was also famous for introducing Mr. T as team member B.A. "Bad Attitude" Baracus.  The storylines were big on action, adventure and explosions, with a partly-campy and fun element in each episode of the show.

     Issue #1 of this new comic book is entitled "Shotgun Wedding," and throws us right into typical A-team action/adventure.  The team is on assignment in the Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait off of the coast of Alaska, working to track-down and capture an international arms dealer trying to escape across the Bering Strait into Russia.  As the bad guy makes a run for it, he's pursued by two A-team members in a very lengthy action sequence and ultimately captured.  Two minor parallel plotlines have more of a humorous tone, focusing first on two of the team members running into former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at the nearby airport, and secondly dealing with Mr. T/B.A. Baracus's famous fear of flying.

     This is a fun action/adventure comic book that gives the reader a light and entertaining read in contrast to so many of the heavier-themed action comics out these days.  The creative team hits the bullseye in reproducing in comic book form the innocent, semi-campy atmosphere that made the television show so popular.  Irregardless of your personal politics, the Sarah Palin plot item was cute and funny, and made for a nice relevant updating of the A-Team's world from the 1980's into today's current society.  So if you're looking to add a non-superhero comic book into your current reading pile, in the famous words of Mr. T, "I pity the fool who doesn't read issue #1 of The A-Team!"